Fuge flow question

[Billgax]

That sounds like the perfect situation. Basically self-sustaining with very little human intervention.

I hate to sound arrogant, but I found the holy grail with that bugger! Worked so well, I modded the back chamber of my Solana to have a mini version of v.1.0. :) Fuge or bust!!!!

 

[Akwarius]

I hate to sound arrogant, but I found the holy grail with that bugger! Worked so well, I modded the back chamber of my Solana to have a mini version of v.1.0. :) Fuge or bust!!!!

Not arrogant at all. Your success story has given me momentum to get to work on my own.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

I don't 100% agree with (ie. would put into practice) anything that I have read here... not to say that I DISagree or disbelieve anything that has been said.
I designed my fuge (my recently sold 20H sump) to have a DSB/mud substrate, lots of rubble stacks (including around the return pump intake... to lure the pods and create cryptic zones), chaeto (not tumbling), and by no means did I ever vacuum the substrate, directly feed it or stock it with any creatures (intentionally).
The whole idea was to establish a stable 'ecosystem' that derived all it's nutrients from the water coming in. The only messing with the fuge was macro harvest.
Detritus fed the benthic fauna (peanut worms, bristles, etc), dissolved nutrients fed the macro... and the fuge fed bacterioplankton and zooplankton to my reef. My DT water quality was immaculate, my mandarin lived solely on fuge food for years, my corals (mixed reef, including many sps) were rarely ever 'fed' and grew like mad. Did I mention the system was skimmerless?
Basically, I found a way that worked for me... and I wish you the same. If/when anybody ever cares for more build details, would be happy to explain in more detail.

Very interesting design and im glad it works well for you...most things i have read say bad thing about DSB in a fuge. And skimmerless...you sir are an expection to the rule!! Congrats!

 

[Billgax]

Not arrogant at all. Your success story has given me momentum to get to work on my own.

:) rock on! Tagging along closely... let me know if I can otherwise expound further on what I did, used, etc.

 

[xmetalfan99]

Very interesting design and im glad it works well for you...most things i have read say bad thing about DSB in a fuge. And skimmerless...you sir are an expection to the rule!! Congrats!

Really? From all the people that I have spoken with about a DSB in a fuge say that is the only way to go if you have a sand bed in your fuge. What are the reasonings you have read?

 

[Akwarius]

After using a RDSB in the past I am not convinced that they are worth the trouble.

 

[Billgax]

After using a RDSB in the past I am not convinced that they are worth the trouble.

Curious as to the type of "trouble"?

 

[tclipse]

my chaeto grows best with major water flow,I have about 3000gph(twin propeller powerhead) in a 20g tank blasting it into a spin,the tank is fed with a MJ 1200(about 300gph of flow)with all this flow,I still have cyano in there,but it keeps my nitrates and phosphate to near undetectable levels...here's a video of my chaeto factory....I remove about 5 gallon of chaeto a month :bigsmile:

other macros have to have a slower flow but chaeto,for me,needs a strong current...it's nearly impossible to grow pods in there though,it would be best to have 2 fuges,1 like this and 1 with slow flow to grow pods in.....just my $.02 though

[video=youtube;0swLeG-NsLg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0swLeG-NsLg[/video]

And then..... Man invented the wheel.

 

[redtop03]

Very well put Redtop...i agree with alot of what you wrote. So what size tank do you have??

thank you,different things work best for different systems,it's a trial and error thing sometimes.......my tank's a 360 gallon plywood.....I added my build thread link to my sig....I thought I'd already done that before :D

 

[redtop03]

And then..... Man invented the wheel.

someone on another forum described that as a round bail of green hay :D

 

[redtop03]

To bad it is limiting the effectiveness of your macro algaes. You are pumping clean water in to your fuge section. You want durty water going to your fuge, not clean water.

very valid point,but IMHO even the best,most efficient skimmer made will only remove a certain percentage of waste so the water isn't completely stripped of nutrients,the macros should still get plenty to feed on,but I stated in my first post concerning this that you'd have to feed the fuge occasionally....it was merely a suggestion to help keep the fuge clean....

in my system,I have my tank draining into 1 section,from there I feed the fuge with a small pump instead of feeding it straight from the drain or from the skimmer output,that helps to keep out excessive detritus too...most of my detritus build up is in that one section and is a little easier to remove

this has turned into a very interesting thread :D

 

[redtop03]

Yes I do. I never said that macros filter detritus out of the water. The detritus build up in a well setup fuge will not matter. In fact, it will gaurantee that your algae does not die when your macro algaes have used up most of the nutrients in your water.

I don't think a lot of detritus build up anywhere is good,a little here and there may be OK but I prefer to remove as much as possible...that being said,I don't think a sterile tank is healthy either,I think it's a fine balance between what we remove and what the inhabitants produce.....remove enough to keep nutrients down but not so much that the creatures who thrive on detritus start to starve...with proper pruning of the macros,the tank should maintain enough nutrients to keep it alive,again,it needs to match the output of the inhabitants.....it's all a fine balancing act JMO